Overview

The second installment in the darkly intelligent series that The Independent called “As noir as they get.”

1927, Breslau, Poland: Two elaborate and sadistic murders are discovered within days of each other. The body of an unknown musician, bound and gagged, is found behind a false wall in a shoemaker’s workshop. The victim had been sealed in alive. Elsewhere in the city, the horrifically mutilated body of a locksmith is found. Next to each victim is a torn-out calendar...

More About
This Book

Overview

The second installment in the darkly intelligent series that The Independent called “As noir as they get.”

1927, Breslau, Poland: Two elaborate and sadistic murders are discovered within days of each other. The body of an unknown musician, bound and gagged, is found behind a false wall in a shoemaker’s workshop. The victim had been sealed in alive. Elsewhere in the city, the horrifically mutilated body of a locksmith is found. Next to each victim is a torn-out calendar page, with the day of the death marked in blood. Nothing else seems to connect the cases.

It falls to Criminal Councillor Eberhard Mock to solve the case, the mystery taking him still further into the Breslau underworld he knows only too well. Meanwhile, his hard-drinking nocturnal habits soon threaten his volatile marriage, and prompt some strange behavior from his wife ... and before long, Mock and his team will be investigating not only two of the grisliest murders in the city’s history, but the councillor’s own wife.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Fans of Simenon’s stand-alone noirs will find much to like." —Publishers Weekly

"Krajewski focuses brilliantly on Mock’s psychological dissolution, but he also continues to offer fascinating glimpses of the city... bizarre and insightful." —ALA Booklist (starred review)

Praise for Death in Breslau:

“As noir as they get. This complex and atmospheric thriller will find many fans.” —The Independent

“The city of Breslau is as much a character in this thriller as the parade of gothic loons that inhabit it … Addictive … ” —The Daily Telegraph

“A stylish, intelligent and original addition to the canon.” —The Financial Times

“Krajewski carved out a new niche, Polish noir. And what a neat niche it is: sweaty with decadent aristocrats, fleshy with prostitutes and pimps and corpulent with corpses … a bawdy, black-humoured and a unique police tale.” —RTE Guide

“Rich and idiosyncratic … Atmosphere and piquant period detail saturate the pages, and push these books into the upper echelons of literary crime. Krajewski’s lacerating narrative performs the key function of the skilful novelist: providing an entre into a world far from our own.” —The Independent

From the Publisher

"Fans of Simenon’s stand-alone noirs will find much to like." —Publishers Weekly

"Krajewski focuses brilliantly on Mock’s psychological dissolution, but he also continues to offer fascinating glimpses of the city... bizarre and insightful." —ALA Booklist (starred review)

Praise for Death in Breslau:

“As noir as they get. This complex and atmospheric thriller will find many fans.” —The Independent

“The city of Breslau is as much a character in this thriller as the parade of gothic loons that inhabit it … Addictive … ” —The Daily Telegraph

“A stylish, intelligent and original addition to the canon.” —The Financial Times

“Krajewski carved out a new niche, Polish noir. And what a neat niche it is: sweaty with decadent aristocrats, fleshy with prostitutes and pimps and corpulent with corpses … a bawdy, black-humoured and a unique police tale.” —RTE Guide

“Rich and idiosyncratic … Atmosphere and piquant period detail saturate the pages, and push these books into the upper echelons of literary crime. Krajewski’s lacerating narrative performs the key function of the skilful novelist: providing an entre into a world far from our own.” —The Independent

Publishers Weekly

Krajewski’s bleak second mystery in his Eberhard Mock quartet opens in 1960 New York City, where a dying Mock summons his old friend, Herbert Anwaldt, to hear his confession. Flash back to Breslau, Germany, late 1927. Criminal Counselor Mock investigates the murders of a musician shackled and encased alive inside a brick wall and an unemployed locksmith drawn and quartered in his own apartment. The only link between the two bizarre crimes is a piece of paper with the date pinned on each body. Meanwhile, Mock, a heavy drinker, is unable to impregnate his wife, Sophie, who eventually leaves him and disappears into the decadence of the German spa town of Wiesbaden. The unhappy, melancholic detective spends much of his time obsessing over his lost wife, while attempting to connect the strands of “the calendar murders.” Fans of Simenon’s stand-alone noirs will find much to like. (Apr.)

Kirkus Reviews

In decadent 1920s Germany, a dutiful but haunted detective unravels a pair of bizarre murders as his personal life crumbles around him. In 1960, as he lies dying ignominiously of lung cancer in New York with a priest standing nearby, Eberhard Mock confesses the story in a flashback to his friend Herbert Anwaldt. On a November Monday in 1927, Criminal Councilor Mock is summoned to a tenement in Breslau, where a shoemaker named Rohmig works. Having knocked down a wall to find the source of a noxious smell, Rohmig has found a corpse, bound and gagged and with a calendar page pinned to his waistcoat. A card found on the body conveniently identifies him as musician Emil Gelfert, 50, and even includes his address. Another victim, unemployed locksmith Berthold Honnefelder, is found butchered in the Tenderloin, in his pocket is a small calendar with a particular date circled. Trapped in a loveless marriage and beset by personal demons, Mock nevertheless probes the case doggedly over the objections of his superiors, following his instinct that the calendar pages are the key to the killer's motive. While his wife, Sophie, carouses with her intimate friend Elisabeth and a debauched baron, Mock acts so recklessly that he nearly bungles his investigation. He drinks heavily; assaults both suspects and Sophie; even assigns detectives to follow her in her escapades. In the second of Mock's five adventures translated into English (Death in Breslau, 2012, etc.), darkly atmospheric writing and complex characters draw the reader into a vividly depicted era of modern history.

Related Subjects

Meet the Author

MAREK KRAJEWSKI was born in Wroclaw (formerly Breslau), Poland, on September 4, 1966. He is the author of five novels in the Breslau series, which have been translated into fourteen languages and won Poland’s top literary and crime prizes. Krajewski is a former lecturer in Classical Studies at the University of Wroclaw.

Your Rating:

Your Recommendations:

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked,
or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to
Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original
and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you
and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not
violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help
ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer.
However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or
to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the
information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reminder:

- By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its
sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the
review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.

- Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly
those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com
also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.